Warsaw, Solidarity Come Around to Round-Table Talks

By
Compiled from the Wire Services /
January 24, 1989

GDANSK, POLAND

IN accepting a Communist Party offer to hold talks on legalizing Solidarity, leaders of the outlawed trade union called for the talks to deal with Poland's ``dramatic economic, ecological, and material situation.'' The round-table talks, expected as early as next month, would be the first formal talks between Solidarity and authorities since the union was crushed in a December 1981 crackdown.

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said Poland had a better chance of national reconciliation than in 1980-81, when Solidarity's turbulent 16-month period of legality ended with its suppression under martial law.

Supporters clapped and chanted as union spokesman Janusz Onyszkiewicz read a statement Sunday accepting a party offer to legalize Solidarity. The offer, made after a stormy Central Committee session last week, cleared the final hurdle in the way of talks with the union which the government had proposed in August.

Solidarity's statement called for resolution of labor disputes by negotiation and compromise, and urged all bodies participating in public life to put the good of the country above their own interests.

In nearly two days of talks among the union's leadership, Solidarity said it is willing to respect the law and its original 1980 statute. It called on the government to respect United Nations conventions guaranteeing trade union freedoms

``It is necessary to start negotiations as soon as possible. They should have a realistic and concrete character, and public opinion should be informed about it fully,'' Solidarity said.